a brief history, pt. 2
Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement that started in the early 1990s. Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, and female empowerment. In addition to a music scene, riot grrrl is also a subculture; zines, the DIY ethic, art, political action, and activism are part of the movement. Riot grrrls hold meetings, start chapters, and support and organize women in music.
In the early 1990s, many young women involved in underground music scenes throughout the United States articulated their feminist thoughts and desires through the “Do-It-Yourself” methods of making punk-rock fanzines and forming garage bands. The political model of collage-based, photocopied handbills and booklets was already used by the punk movement as a way to activate underground music, leftist politics and alternative (to mainstream) sub-cultures. Many women found that while they identified with a larger, music-oriented subculture, they often had little to no voice in their local scenes, so they took it upon themselves to represent their own interests by making their own fanzines, music and art.
Uses and meanings of the term ‘Riot Grrrl’ developed slowly over time, but its etymological origins can be traced to the actual Mount Pleasant race riots in spring 1991. Writing in Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital, Mark Andersen reports that early Bratmobile member Jen Smith (later of Rastro! and The Quails), reacted to the violence by prophetically writing in a letter to Allison Wolfe: “This summer’s going to be a girl riot.” Other reports say she wrote, “We need to start a girl riot.” Soon afterwards, Wolfe and Molly Neuman collaborated with Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail to create a new zine and called it Riot Grrrl, combining the “riot” with an oft-used phrase that first appeared in Vail’s fanzine Jigsaw: “angry grrls”.
Although they’re known for frequently denying exclusive credit for the movement, two bands in particular remain inextricably linked to its early formation: Bikini Kill and Bratmobile.
As media attention increasingly focused on grunge and alternative rock in the early nineties, the term ‘Riot Grrrl’ was often applied to less political female alternative rock acts. To their chagrin, riot grrrls found themselves in the media spotlight during 1992, accused of dragging feminism into the mosh pit in magazines from Seventeen to Newsweek. This increased press coverage led to conflict within the riot grrrl community as many felt that the culture was being misappropriated by the media against the movement’s will and its radical message marginalized, as well as adversely affecting their private lives, with the media often deliberately lying and relying largely on erroneous speculation and conjecture about personal information and motivations. Fallout from the media coverage led to resignations of people like Jessica Hopper, who was at the center of the Newsweek article. Kathleen Hanna called that year for “a press block”.
By the mid-nineties, riot grrrl had severely splintered. Many within the movement felt that the mainstream media had completely misrepresented their message, and that the politically radical aspects of riot grrrl had been subverted by the likes of the Spice Girls and their “girl power” message, or co-opted by ostensibly women-centered bands (though sometimes with only one female performer per band) and festivals like Lilith Fair.
